Shaping your brain with exercise, video games and more

The Frontiers Research Topic, published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, consists of a collection of scientific articles investigating these cognitive training techniques in health and disease, and in youth and old age.

— By Conn Hastings

Our cognitive abilities allow us to understand and interact with our world. Cognition occurs in the brain and cognitive abilities or skills include processes such as attention, memory, decision making, reasoning and problem solving. In short, we need such skills to carry out tasks, from designing a space rocket to tying our shoelaces. Human cognitive skills underlie our advanced civilization and in many ways, distinguish us from the plants and animals who share our planet.

Are our cognitive abilities something innate that we are born with and can’t change? Do they naturally change during our lives? Unfortunately, cognitive abilities can be reduced by injury or disease and also decline with old age. “People experience a decline in attention and long-term memory as they age,” explains Topic Editor Soledad Ballesteros of the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia. However, this decline is not inevitable, and scientists are finding ways to reduce it, while discovering techniques for younger people to also boost their cognitive skills.

The brain’s ability to change and reorganize itself is called neural plasticity. “Neural plasticity exists at many levels of the neural substrate in all individuals, from the cellular level to the level of the brain structure itself. Even the ageing brain retains some neuroplasticity,” explains Ballesteros. Nurturing and enhancing our cognitive abilities could help us to better grasp, remember and use information we are exposed to and could allow us to complete tasks more quickly, regardless of our age. But how can this be achieved? “The articles included in this Research Topic cover the latest interventional and cross-sectional studies investigating the cognitive and neural effects of physical and cognitive activity across the lifespan,” says Topic Editor Louis Bherer of the Université de Montréal.

Another unexpected approach to shape our minds is playing video games. Video games are fun and accessible, and are therefore more likely to be adopted and used consistently by people in the long-term. Video games often require players to make rapid decisions, or to memorize many items at once, all of which can provide an entertaining work-out for our minds. In fact, occasional or regular gamers have been reported as experiencing less depression than non-players, though excessive playing has been connected with social isolation and a sedentary lifestyle. “We included articles that investigated whether video game and computerized cognitive training approaches enhance perceptual and cognitive functions in both young and older individuals,” explains Topic Editor Claudia Voelcker-Rehage of the Technische Universität Chemnitz.

Until relatively recently, scientists believed that once our brains had reached maturity, they couldn’t be enhanced and cognitive decline was somewhat inevitable. However, this Research Topic shows that our minds can be sharpened, regardless of our age, using a whole range of different techniques. “The major implication of this research is that as neural plasticity exists at many brain levels, people can do a lot to maintain and/or improve cognition,” says Bherer.

The Research Topic contains many more interesting studies beyond the selection presented here. The Topic Editors are proud of the submissions to the Research Topic and of their decision to create a Research Topic with Frontiers. “This Frontiers Research Topic includes 44 articles written by many respected authors in the field. We published with Frontiers because we think that it is important to reach a wider audience and that scientific knowledge should be disseminated and accessible to all,” says Ballesteros.